


On the Fourth Day, Part 2: Don't Go

by Setcheti



Series: Scientific Rescuing [3]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 14:32:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setcheti/pseuds/Setcheti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Scott warned Cecil to be careful with Carlos that night, he hadn't known how right he was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Fourth Day, Part 2: Don't Go

**Author's Note:**

> Please see dark themes warning in Part 1. And I don’t know why Carlos keeps insisting on telling his part of these stories in the first person – he doesn’t do that in my other WtNV stories. But he does it in this one, so it’s probably just going to keep happening.

I dragged on a pair of pajama pants and then stumbled half-blindly to bed, stretching out with a sigh because it felt so, so good to be laying down. And a minute later, I felt Cecil push himself up on one elbow. I didn’t open my eyes; he was looking at me, but even if I hadn’t been…well, I still would have been too tired to do anything about it. After a minute he pushed up a little more, and one hand landed on my shoulder and started massaging from there down to my collarbone and back. Oh god, that felt good. My arms and shoulders had gotten way too much of a workout today…

No, don’t think about it. Not tonight.  

He didn’t say anything, just kept rubbing. He did my shoulders and then worked his way down my ribcage, avoiding the bruises and scrapes…and then all of a sudden his hand faltered and then he was laying on me, hugging me. That opened my eyes; he wasn’t supposed to be twisting around like that. I forced a few synapses to fire in sequence and flipped him back over – gently – and laid on top of him instead. “No, you know better.”

He sighed. “I don’t usually lay on my back, it’s aching. And I…that was where they shot you. There’s not a mark, but…I remember.”

I winced; I’d forgotten about that, that he’d been _watching_ that night in the bowling alley. He’d been narrating it as it happened, and then I’d slipped and knocked myself out and he’d gone to pieces right there on the radio according to Teddy. I hadn’t heard that, though; my first memory after falling was hearing Teddy hooting in triumph and feeling like someone had hit me in the stomach with an axe, and then hearing Teddy give someone – or maybe that had been everyone – shit for not already being on the phone to the radio station to let Cecil know I was alive. He’d given me shit a few minutes later for calling him deranged and saying the little people weren’t a threat to us, but he’d also admitted that he wouldn’t have thought they were a threat either if he’d known how small they were. And then he’d fixed the cut on my head, which had felt like he was stabbing me in the eyes with a pair of screwdrivers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really great that Teddy has the ability to heal soft tissue injuries…but the healing hurts a lot worse than the injuries do, a lot worse. “The one on the side surprised me, but the one in the middle was me being stupid and turning around to see what they’d shot me with.”

“It wasn’t stupid, you were just trying to figure out what was happening.” His voice was quiet. “Stupid is leaving your drink on a table at a party and then going back to finish it later.”

I stroked his side with my fingertips, soothing, reassuring. Steve Carlsberg? A dead man walking. “Is that how it happened?”

He sighed. “Yup. I was stupid – any teenager knows better than to do that.”

“You weren’t stupid,” I insisted. “The lost drink rule is for parties with strangers, or for when you’re out in a club – also surrounded by strangers.” A little bit of my temper kicked in and I lifted my head so I could look at him. “So you were at a party _here_ , a party full of people _you grew up with_ …how the hell did he get away with that? Were you drinking something weird, some mixed drink with hard liquor in it or something and they thought you just hadn’t been able to handle it?”

He snorted. “I was drinking Diet Coke. I hadn’t been back very long, and I’d missed soda and coffee more than almost anything else. Caffeine belongs to civilization, not…out there.” He frowned, his fingers finding my hair and carding through it, his eyes distant. “So yeah, everyone at the party knew what he’d done, and nobody stopped him. I was just lucky that he was so stupid and arrogant and sure that I’d suddenly decide I wanted him that he wanted me awake enough to know what he was doing. So the drugs wore off enough that I could move before he…well, got where he wanted to go, and when he tried to go there anyway I hit him. It might have turned into a fight, but then Teddy showed up.” A little smile. “Someone had slipped and told him what was going on, and he wasn’t happy. Steve ran like he had bees in his pants. Except he wasn’t wearing any at the time.”

That made me chuckle, and I put my head back down, resting it on his chest again. “That image is going to stick with me – I may laugh too hard to kick his ass the next time I see him.”

I could hear the smile in his voice. “That would be fun to watch too – he thinks he’s really something, if you laughed at him he’d be absolutely mortified.” He rubbed a little harder, massaging my scalp, and I made a drowsy, happy noise; he was going to end up putting me to sleep if he kept it up, and that was a good thing, a really good thing. “Sadly, also thanks to Teddy, all I can do is tease you right now.”

I snorted softly. “At least you can blame it on the drugs, and yours will wear off. I can only blame Al and mine won’t.”

He stiffened, and I realized what I’d just admitted. My face flamed so hot he must have actually felt it through the t-shirt he was wearing. My t-shirt, a blue one, one of my favorites. “Wait a minute, Carlos, you told me the last time you saw Al…”

Okay, I’d only thought I couldn’t get any redder; I was wrong. I stared at the wall, unable to look up at him, not wanting to see the disgust on his face when he realized what that actually meant. “Was right after my mother’s funeral, yeah.” I choked, like I always did when I thought about what had happened that day. “That afternoon. Five years ago, almost six. It was so _wrong_ , I don’t even know why it happened, but it did and he was gone when I woke up and that was also the last time I ever…well, there’s nothing wrong with me, physically, I just…don’t work.”

I heard and felt the hum, and his fingers moved in my hair. “Before that, had you and Al…”

“No.” There had never been anything like that between Al and I, from either end. Which made what had happened that day even worse. “He was like my brother, I didn’t…” I squeezed my eyes shut because even the wall was looking accusing, and felt liquid fire burn out of my tear ducts. “I still don’t know why it happened,” I repeated. The hum again, deeper now, angry-sounding. My throat constricted, and I forced myself to sit up and away from him, wrapping my arms around my chest; he probably didn’t want me touching him right now. I heard and felt him sit up too, but I still couldn’t look at him. “I…I’m sorry, Cecil. I just didn’t know how to tell you. I wanted to, I knew I _needed_ to because I didn’t want you to think I didn’t want…but I haven’t been able to tell anybody since it happened, I was just too…too ashamed, too embarrassed.”

“I would have been too,” he said quietly. “But Carlos…my sweet, perfect Carlos…” I choked again, and his hands settled on my shoulders, stroking. “Carlos, it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t choose to do that.”

 “Obviously I did, because it happened.” Oh god, I was going to have to actually say it. “You don’t understand, I…I _started_ it.”

He made a frustrated noise. “No, _you_ don’t understand. You didn’t choose that, he did. He wanted it to happen for some reason…” I was shaking my head, starting to shake all over at this point, and he stopped. “God, you don’t even know. That absolute bastard.” The hands on my shoulders stopped stroking and let go. “Carlos, I’m going to…I’m going to _prove_ to you that it wasn’t your fault, or your choice. Just…I need you to trust me, okay? I need you to remember that I would never, _ever_ hurt you.” I heard a rustle, heard him swallow, and then for some reason the air between us got really warm. “Carlos,” he said quietly. “You’re going to look me in the eye.”

I didn’t want to. I couldn’t face his disgust, not tonight, and I didn’t want to be watching when he decided he hated me and pushed me away. I wasn’t going to do it, I _couldn’t_ do it…

And then I did it anyway. It felt like something was gripping me on the inside, moving me…and then, just before I wanted to start getting sick because I suddenly realized I _remembered that feeling_ , the gripping sensation disappeared like a switch had been cut off. Cecil’s eyes were glinting red, but as I stared at him, tears still burning my eyes, trying to make sense out of the sickened knot in my stomach, he shook his head and pulled me into a hard, reassuring hug; I was shaking again, crying again. “I will never do that to you again unless I have your permission,” he told me. “Because it’s r…it’s wrong.” I was really glad he didn’t use the word I knew he actually meant, because I didn’t think I could hear it. Not right now, not after the day I’d already had. “But now you know. You didn’t initiate that encounter, and you didn’t ask for it. He manipulated you. He wanted that to happen, so he _made_ it happen…and he let you think it was your fault, because he didn’t want you to know it was his.” He stroked my back soothingly, petting me. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. I’ll figure out how to fix what he did – I _know_ I can fix it. And the next time I see Al, I’m going to kill him.”

Frighteningly enough, I think he meant that literally. Cecil committing homicide for me wasn’t the most frightening thing about that idea, though, and I looked up at him again in a panic. “No, Cecil, you can’t go back out there, you can’t – you might not be able to get back this time! Promise me you won’t try it.”

He made a shushing noise and kept petting me; he even pushed my head back down onto his shoulder. “I won’t go without you, I’ll promise you that.” I heard the smile even though I couldn’t see it. “Think of all the science you could get into out there.”

And just like that, I relaxed. Nothing between us had changed. He still wanted me, still loved me. I sniffed, clearing my nose. “You just want to watch me run tests.”

His grin was practically audible. “I know where a really big former government lab is at. Completely abandoned, _full_ of science stuff. You could run tests forever.”

“You are the only person I know who can make that sound dirty,” I told him, and then lifted my head back up so I could kiss him. “Not without me, _never_ without me. Promise?”

He kissed me back. “Promise.” His fingers tangled in my hair. “Come on, get comfortable and let’s go to sleep. It’s been a long day.” I winced, and he shook his head. “I know – I was watching, remember? You had to, he would have killed Tony and probably you too.”

“I know that.” I helped him lay back down and get comfortable again and then snuggled in. He was warm, and his heartbeat under my ear was soothing, and I just felt _safe_. “I just didn’t expect what he was…wearing, what they’d been doing, that’s what shook me more than anything – that, and I almost didn’t get him before he got to Tony. ” I yawned in spite of myself. “I think I need some more time at the range.”

“Once I can get out of this bed, we’ll go together.” This time I was the one making the inquisitive hum, and he chuckled and started petting me again. “I know my way around a gun, although I’m a lot better with a knife. Don’t tell anyone, though.”

I patted his chest. “I promise, I won’t tell anyone my boyfriend is a closet badass.”

He laughed. “Your boyfriend is out of shape and hasn’t had to fight in quite a while – Kevin doesn’t count, that wasn’t much of a fight.”

I snorted sleepily. “Of course it wasn’t, Kevin is a marshmallow compared to you. But if you’re worried about it…I know some Krav Maga, I can teach you.”

He actually purred. “Ooh, now who’s talking dirty?”

“You, still.”

He kissed the top of my head and tugged the blankets up a little higher around us. I opened one eye when the kitten jumped up, but all it did was curl up near my hand and start to purr. For some reason that made me feel even safer. I fell asleep between one warm, contented thought and the next, and when I dreamed it was about my mother and for the first time in years she actually smiled at me.   

 

Cecil kept rubbing Carlos’s back until he was sure the exhausted man was sound asleep, and then he relaxed and closed his eyes, the lingering red glow backlighting his eyelashes. He _looked_ around the house one more time, and then _looked_ around the neighborhood to see if the police were still out prowling around anywhere, and then he took a quick _look_ at the sinkhole to make sure everything there was still quiet in a good way. Not that Scott would have called in Carlos or Tony even if it hadn’t been, not after what had happened earlier in the hospital nursery, but Cecil wanted to be sure nothing was crawling out of the hole anyway. The bowling alley was quiet too when he _looked_ that way, the few people still there all asleep and one rescued nurse awake just in case and reading a trashy novel. His last _look_ was at his cousin’s house, just to make sure he was okay; Teddy was putting on his pajamas and getting ready for bed, and everything at his house was quiet too, so Cecil mentally pulled his sight back to the immediate area and then tugged the elastic bandages down over all but one tattooed eye and tangled his fingers in Carlos’s hair again. The wet spots on the t-shirt he was wearing – another one of Carlos’s favorites, he could tell – felt cold against his skin, and the waning red glow backlighting his eyelashes from under his closed eyelids brightened momentarily. Al was a dead man just as soon as he could walk again. Cecil wasn’t even going to have to kill Al himself, although he’d like to. No, all he was going to have to do was tell the tribal elders what had happened – or better yet, show them – and they’d do a better job of punishing Al than Cecil ever could. And then he could take Carlos to the lab that he’d found, and some sexy, sexy science could happen.

Cecil fell asleep with a smile on his face. And when he dreamed that night he also saw his mother, and she stared into his eyes and showed him silly things until he giggled, which made her smile too.


End file.
